Turns out our gut bugs may be creating oversized guts. That’s one of the suggestions given as to why some suffer from obesity while others don’t. Airing Thursday under CBC’s The Nature of Things banner, “It Takes Guts” posits the 100 trillion microbes living in our digestive system influence obesity in some.
The story begins with Adrianna, who has always battled her weight. Tired of being “the fat girl,” she started an exercise regimen in her 20s and cut fast food from her diet. She didn’t lose any weight. That’s because, according to obesity expert Dr. Arya Sharma of the University of Alberta, some bodies are predisposed to being that way thanks to the microbes inside them.
Geneticist Professor Tim Spector is up next, explaining microbes influence how we eat, what we eat, how we get energy from our food, protect our immune system, help us harvest calories and produce key vitamins and nutrients. These super-small spirals, blobs and other shapes are integral in our lives, and aren’t all bad.
“It Takes Guts” offers a lot of information in an interesting way, mixing expert interviews with colourful graphics while explaining how eating processed foods is like dropping a nuclear bomb on microbes—courtesy of Spector’s son, Tom—and what we can do to cultivate and enrich the critters in our gut on the path to better health. And that artificial poop machine at the University of Guelph? Make sure you tune in for that.
The Nature of Things airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.
Just doing a little fact checking….and the host of the show states there are more microbes in our gut, 100 trillion, then there are stars in the sky. Conservative estimates of the number of stars are around a billion trillion and a new study from researchers at Harvard and Yale suggests there are a mind-blowing 300 sextillion of them, or three times as many as scientists previously calculated. That is a 3 followed by 23 zeros. Or 3 trillion times 100 billion. I wonder if this was just a slip, or is it an indication of a lack of understanding of very large numbers.
Dave Lewis
2 foods they mentioned to eat….one was Leeks & I forgot the other, can you help me? Thanks so much!
Chickpeas is the answer to your question
Will this show obesity and the gut rerun.
All of the past Nature of Things episodes can be re-watched on the show’s website: http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/
I have discovered the main cause for most cancers and other diseases. They are causes by the trillions and trillions of pi-bonding electrons in caffeine and benzene that creates the large magnetic current energy fields that can electronically mutate all of your bodies cells and your brains neurons. As you know we have over 20 different electrical voltage levels in our body and the magnetic fields can mutate these levels. Del.